Reflections on Deaf West Theatre’s Orphée being cancelled due to COVID

Renca: You know, COVID has made an impact on the world in many areas including jobs, schools and many more, including theater. At Deaf West Theatre located in Los Angeles, California, one of their productions called Orphée directed by Deena Selenow should have happened last March but had to cancel due to COVID-19. The Orphée cast were supposed to have traveled to Tokyo, Japan for their 2020 Summer Olympics at the “True Colors Festival” organized by the Nippon Foundation. They were meant to be a part of the Olympics festival and give their performance there, but the Olympics were cancelled which meant their plan to perform there was dropped too. The Daily Moth reached out to DJ Kurs, Artistic Director for Deaf West Theatre to ask about the impact it has made.

DJ: For that play, we started rehearsal in January. We rehearsed for six weeks which is a typical timeframe. The cast members flew in and we rehearsed to get ready for the opening. We had a preview to test all the parts out, but then COVID started getting worse, and the NBA cancelled their season.

The government still hadn’t made a clear statement on whether everything should be closed or not, and I thought about safety and the possibility of the virus getting around in our cast. I decided we had to close the production. Opening night was supposed to be on March 13, so we opened and closed on the same night.

[Image of Deaf West Theatre's Facebook post with the words, "An important update regarding COVID-19:

It is with a heavy heart that we must announce that performances of our current production, Jean Cocteau's Orphée, have been suspended until further notice."]

For that night, we had invited over a hundred people. It’s a small theater, and not too spacious. It’s more of an intimate setting. We had to reduce that number from a hundred to 50 because we had to meet categorized lines, so we limited attendants to only family and close friends. That’s it. As for the rest like critics and money people like donors, we had to let them know they couldn’t attend. The audience was for the cast, because of all the hard work the cast had put in. So we had one night of that performance, and it was a beautiful production. We had many beautiful things about that production. For example, we had a Deaf project designer. His name is Michael Epstein and he works in movies in Hollywood. He works for a TV show called The Mandalorian, part of Star Wars, and we were able to bring him in. We had a beautiful projection, and it all came together beautifully with emojis and other things. All of that work done by him and set designers… We were ready to share that performance, but we couldn’t. And you know, opening night is the worst night to close because you actually have to pay everyone. I had to pay the director, and everyone else. That night is usually when we lose money, but after gaining revenue, that’s when we’ll earn that money back. We’ll never get above it from ticket sales, but from donors and others. After opening night, that’s when we’re low in money. But… I kept thinking about the safety of everyone. That’s the number one priority and what is most important. Again, it is a privilege and honor to have worked with these people. That memory will always remain in my heart, and that memory is more important than giving that production and having people see it. We respect that beautiful work that all the actors, designers, and directors brought to the table. That will always stay with me. At the same time it was a very unique experience. I’ve never experienced that kind of performance that no one’s seen, you know? That’s hard to believe sometimes.

Sometimes I feel like I’m going to open soon, but no. Right. We already closed for real. Will we give that performance again in the future? I don’t know. Maybe when we feel safe enough to get back to the show. Maybe we would have that play again, or not.

[Image of Deaf West Theatre's Facebook post with the words, "The cast and company of Orphée. We are eternally grateful for the hard work and talent that this group of people gave to create this show."]

Renca: We also reached out to a few main characters from Orphée. We reached out to three people: Natasha Ofili, Daniel Durant, and Amelia Hensley. We asked them what their role was in Orphée.

Natasha: My role in Orphée was Euridice, with this name sign.

Daniel: I was Orphée, the lead male character as the husband.

Amelia: My role was Heurtebise. That role is actually based on a male character, and I didn’t expect to get that role. It was nice having that role. I wasn’t sure if it meant I had to dress like a male. The director said no, he loved my work and how I expressed myself in my audition and wanted me to keep that, and just modify the character to be a female role. Very cool!

Renca: We asked them how they feel about the cancellation of the show.

Natasha: I was sad and disappointed the show had to close because of COVID. We have an amazing group with the cast, production, and most importantly, the director named Deena Selenow. Also, in addition to that, we had many Deaf people in the cast and this show is very artistic, really stands out, and thinks outside the box. It’s too bad. I think the community would have been very impressed to see this type of show. It’s very unique, fun, expressive. It’s really sad. I hope we can come back when COVID goes away. This is a special show.

Amelia: We really did work so hard, and no performance? We still had an opening night, so that’s good. That impacted me hard, that this is serious. It took a lot to cancel that show, because it meant we lost a lot of money for Deaf West who invested in us. I had to accept that, but my heart goes out to those who joined Deaf West for the first time. I can empathize with the feeling of wanting to be a part of Deaf West, and having their opportunity to showcase their skills being taken away. I was very impressed with one person’s work. It was this person’s first time being a part of Deaf West - Krissy Lemon. My heart truly goes out to her. I told her to not worry, because I’m sure there will be other opportunities. I will make sure they know about her.

Daniel: Honestly, I never experienced that kind of thing, like this, before. Never. When it happened, I wasn’t sure how to get through it with my emotions. Like you said, we invested so much of our energy and time into rehearsal, our passion, and unity. At that time, we were warned about COVID but I didn’t know too much about the science behind it. At first we didn’t think it was a big deal, but then we actually had to shut down. I felt dejected. All this time, with our hard work… But at the same time, I’m happy that we came together and worked with other people to see their skills and unity. We had this together like a family, and that was nice. But it was strange when it closed, and when we opened and closed at the same time. That was weird, but luckily, we had opening night. Really, we didn’t need to have an opening night but luckily we made it with a limited audience of 50 people. So, that was lucky and nice to have an opening night rather than nothing, you know?

Renca: We asked for any last comments for our Deaf community.

Daniel: Because of COVID, it has been a strange time but we remain optimistic. I still stay in touch with other actors and we support each other. When we’re ready to return, we will be creative and have fun!

Amelia: Really, keep going. It’s a good time for us to take a breather and analyze ourselves, and learn more about politics, BLM, trans issues, and many other things. The list goes on. It’s good for us to take a seat and listen, and it makes all of us stronger.

DJ: At this time in our community, BLM has made an impact on our theater community and we hope that in the future we can alleviate their voices and grow to have more analysis on our backgrounds and where we come from, and at the same time bring that to the stage and see their voices grow in beautiful ways. I hope that we can grow to have more writers, artists, directors, and actors during this time too. People who are inspired by what is happening in the world can turn it into art. That’s the goal of what will happen too. I look forward to that.

Natasha: I know a lot has been happening with COVID, BLM, the Presidential election, and as a community. Our Deaf community has learned from unpacking, and growth from all this turmoil that we are experiencing in the last eight and nine months. But we still have a ways to go, and I hope we continue to communicate with each other and really listen and continue to grow, and embrace ourselves and other people. It’s not the end.

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I think COVID was a blessing in disguise because it really shows a broken system, and the flaws in our community and the world. This is an opportunity for us to really listen and see what we can do to make a change and come up with solutions, and try to make progress together. By progressing together, we will advance within ourselves and our future. Those are my words to the Deaf community.

Renca: We want to thank DJ, Natasha, Daniel, and Amelia for sharing. We also want to thank Deaf West Theatre for continuing to invest in our Deaf community and supporting different talented Deaf people. If you want to support Deaf West Theatre, you can donate or share about them on social media. We do hope that one day Orphée will be shown. The link to Deaf West Theatre will be shared in the post.

LINKS:

https://www.deafwest.org/

https://www.facebook.com/deafwesttheatre